TiO2 Synthesized by Anhydrous Sol-Gel Method and Surface Modification with Carbonization

Abstract

As a stable lithium ion battery anode electrode, anatase TiO2 is one of the competitive materials. However, anatase TiO2 has some limitations such as a low capacity due to sluggish reaction of Li𝑥TiO2 (𝑥 > 0.5) and poor lithium ion diffusion in this material. We synthesized nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 coated with a thin carbon layer through non-hydrolytic sol-gel method and calcination process. The carbon shell and oxygen vacancy were formed on TiO2 surface by the calcination at high temperature. Both the carbon shell and the oxygen vacancy affect the electrochemical properties of TiO2. It is demonstrated in this thesis that the carbon layer, oxygen vacancy, and other physical properties of TiO2 significantly affect its capacity and these influence can be understood in terms of kinetic aspect of lithium ion diffusion at the TiO2 surface interface.